So much free time, so little to do: such was the case during the COVID-enforced lockdown.

Entertainment venues shut down in mid-March, as so many other places did. Sites such as the Garde Arts Center, the Mohegan Sun Arena and Foxwoods’ two theaters haven’t been abel to bring in audiences since.

So people couldn’t cram into arenas to hear rock concerts or watch sports events. They couldn’t file into theaters to see plays or musicals. They couldn’t pop into a cinema to catch a flick.

Folks searching for diversions during the pandemic had to find new ways to amuse themselves.

During the first months of the lockdown in Connecticut, TV watching was, naturally, a popular pursuit, as was reading. Families went old-school, too, by joining together to play spirited rounds of Uno and Bananagrams and by figuring out jigsaw puzzles. (The Bowerbird in Old Lyme was selling about 10 times as many puzzles as usual, owner Chris Kitchings said in April.)

And many people turned to the great outdoors — because it was available, but also because viral particles were known to disperse more easily outside and because nature provides an emotional boost. Hiking trails became a huge draw, so much so that the state had to close down some parks when the turnout became too great.

As the weather warmed up, getting out on the water became the thing to do. Businesses that rent kayaks and standup paddle boards noticed a major uptick in interest. Stonington Marina had seen a drop in kayak rentals over the past few years, but general manager Paul Kirrane said in August, “We’ve seen about a 100% increase over last year. So the steady decline has completely reversed itself.”

Getting creative

While multiplexes were shuttered, a throwback moviegoing experience returned to the fore: drive-ins. Misquamicut Drive-In Theater in Westerly drew film fans to see classic flicks like “Jaws” and eventually featured concerts, too.

As the restrictions eased up, a few more out-of-the-house options became available. People could eat outdoors at restaurants and eventually indoors — socially distanced, of course, while wearing masks, with all the COVID precautions in place.

Two local museums reopened during the summer, with the Florence Griswold Museum in Old Lyme inviting the public back in on July 7 and with the Lyman Allyn Art Museum in New London throwing open its doors on June 30. The Lyman Allyn offered free admission through the end of September.

Samuel Quigley, director of the Lyman Allyn, said in September that the museum has seen “an incredible uptick (in attendance) — huge. Almost unprecedented since we opened on June 30, especially after the Peter Anton show opened on July 18. We started experiencing what we would normally expect for weekend days on the weekdays.” They might have, for instance, 120 people on a Tuesday and then 115 on Thursday.

Why the increase? “Well, certainly people are looking for things to do. I think the free admission policy we put into place was a big part of that,” Quigley said.

And, as they have had to do in so many ways since March, organizations got creative. Goodspeed Musicals couldn’t stage musicals inside its intimate theaters, but it did present concerts on the lawn outside its iconic Opera House in East Haddam. The Norwich free summer concert series that was Rock the Docks at Norwich Harbor became Rockin’ the Dodd, moving to Dodd Stadium, where socially distanced shows could happen. (Those were organized by the Greater Norwich Area Chamber of Commerce.) The Eastern Connecticut Symphony Orchestra offered small ensemble performances in the fall at locales like Hygienic Art Park and Olde Mistick Village.

‘Trauma we’ll never recover from’

Writers and musicians, too, found ways to express themselves and communicate. Members of area bands learned to record virtually with one another, sharing files and compiling tracks and working on albums separately. Performing shows via YouTube and other social media became not sources of fan entertainment but a way of keeping the musicians creative and occupied.

Eric Stevenson, pianist/vocalist/songwriter of the art/pop duo Pocket Vinyl, said they had just started a national tour when the virus hit and they had to return home. Relying on music as their sole means of support, Stevenson said they began to perform online concerts every Monday night with merch sales and donations helping out.

“We were able to buy groceries, which has been a blessing,” Stevenson said in May. As for getting used to the experience of performing for a virtual audience, he added, “It’s definitely different playing to an inanimate object, but it helps a little to know there’s an audience behind it. There’s a different energy when you’re in a room with people and they can call out requests or laugh or clap or sing along. That interaction is what makes a performance stronger. But streaming, you can at least see comments pop up and how many people are watching you.”

Area authors, who are used to working in solitude, probably reported the least variance in routine. But each of several who spoke with The Day said as June rolled around that there were certainly differences if only through the awareness of what was happening in the world.

Old Lyme bestselling novelist Luanne Rice said that, at a certain point, a sense of social suffocation and the cause of it began to creep into the work. “Concentrating on my revisions during the early awareness of the pandemic was nearly impossible, and I came close to missing my deadline,” she said.

“There is so much to reflect on, and how can I write without letting it in? I can’t and I shouldn’t. I feel such a bottomless sorrow for the world — for the illness, the loss of life, and the fear that is affecting us all. Coupled with life in America under the Trump presidency — he is so callous, so without compassion in the way he deals with the pandemic and everything else — I think we’re experiencing a trauma we’ll never recover from.”